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Study concerning the development of working memory of primary-schoolers

back to studies with children

  • Picture with dots in squer 3x3
  • Foto child and the test controller
  • Foto child is seeing a fruit basket

Dots

Children see a 3x3 grid. Dots appear successively in fixed time intervals within the grid, and the children are to memorize the positions of the dots. The task difficulty increases as time moves on ñ at first two dots appear, in the end six dots need to be remembered at their correct locations.

SMUC (Spatial Memory Updating for Children)

In this case there is also a grid, however, this time one or two animals appear. The animal shows up at it's initial position and disappears after a while. Now arrows indicates subsequent movements of the animal in the grid. These are to be performed mentally by the children. After 3-4 movements, that differ in speed, the presumed final position of the animal is to be guessed. 
With this task, spatial working memory of children is tested and conclusions drawn for practical application, e.g. efficient training of working memory.

VERMUC (VERbal Memory Updating for Children)

With Vermuc we explore verbal working memory. Children see a fruit basket containing on up to three types of fruits, initially. As time goes on one up to nine different types of fruit can be in the basket.  After 3 to 4 updated tasks, fruits fall into or out of the basket, the final number of fruits is to be calculated by each child.